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PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMI 
[ SINGLE NO. FIVE CENTS. 
geneiations, with a hot iron in the same plact 
have transmitted the visible traces of sue] 
marks to their colts. Instances may be multi 
plied to show conclusively that accidental de 
fects may be transmitted, 
however, 
Longevity 
AN ORIGINAL WEEKLY 
AGRICULTURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY JOURNAL, 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
WITH AN ABLE COUPS OF ASSISTANT EDITORS 
The general law, 
is that they are not so transmitted, 
is an individual peculiarity and as 
such may be inherited. So it is seen that long- 
living runs in families. This point is illustra¬ 
ted, in the Review, by numerous instances quoted 
ftom M. Charles Lejoncourt’s Qalerie des Cen- 
tenaircs, published in 1842. 
Mental or moral peculiarities, and acquired 
habits are in like manner inherited. G’irou re¬ 
lates the case of a sporting dog, taken young 
izom its father and mother, who was singularly 
obstinate and exhibited the greatest terror at: 
every explosion of the gun, which always excites > 
the ardor of its species. It was ascertained; 
that the father of this pup had exhibited the " 
same trait. It is well known that the vicious 
disposition of horses, dogs, dec., is often trans- 
tained as regards supplying nourishment to 
plants. By closer examination and a severer 
scrutiny, we learn that all this boundless va¬ 
riety of substance is composed in fact of four 
simple elements; Oxygen, Hydrogen, Carbon, 
and Nitrogen. In endlessly varied combina¬ 
tions of quantity and form, all vegetable and 
j animal life is made up of these organic constit¬ 
uents. How wonderful the Power which gives 
such an infinite and beautiful diversity from 
means apparently so inadequate to such a re¬ 
sult. These elementary substances may not 
only be characterized as organic, or “the prin¬ 
cipal elements of all organized substances,” but 
as combustible and putrcscible, since both heat 
and corruption, or putrefaction—the one rapidly 
and the other slowly—has the power of dis¬ 
persing them in gaseous combinations. 
These elements have often been defined and 
commented upon. We shall in another number 
briefly indicate their character, and then go on 
to a classification of the proximate elements of 
plants, and the further consideration of the ele¬ 
ments of vegetable growth, taking Stockhardt’s 
Agricultural Chemistry as our chief authority. 
SPECIAL CONTJUKUTGKSi 
:OOKS, JProe. C. DEWEY, 
ETERS, L. B. LANGWORTHY, 
H. C. WHITE. 
hi Rural New-Yorker is designed to bo unique and 
beautiful in appearance, and unsurpassed in Value, Pnritv and 
V “ ri o‘y of Contents. Its conductors earnestly labor to make it 
a Reliable Guide on the important Practical Subjects connected 
with tho bnsmess of those whose interests it advocates. It 
embraces more Agricultural, Horticultural, Scientific, Mechan¬ 
ical, Literary and News Matter, interspersed with many appro- 
prlate and beautiful Engravings, than any other paper published 
in this Country,—rendering it a complete Agricultural, Lit- 
ERART AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
All communications, 
A 1 communication 8» and business letters, should be 
addressed to D. D. T. MOORE, Rochester, N. Y. 
For Terms, and other particulars, see last page. 
liiG mo's itable conclusion, says the Reviewer, 
is that parents transmit their individual pccu- 
liaiities of form, color, longevity, idiosyncrasy, 
&c., to their offspring ; and that they do this 
not as reproducing the species, but as reproducing 
their own individual organization. 
In all the higher classes of animals two pa¬ 
rents, a male and a female, reproduce them¬ 
selves in their offspring. The question then 
arises, What is the influence of each upon such 
offspring. Each sex has, by different writers 
been considered most influential. Again—it 
has been stated that certain portions of the 
}oung have been supposed to arise from each 
parent. 
Upon the first point GeL Daumas has recently 
published the result of his long experience with 
Arab horses, arguing that, according to the 
testimony of the Arabs, the stallion was the 
most valuable for breeding porposes. In reply, 
the Inspcctcur des Haras* who had traversed 
Asia for the express purpose of Collecting evi¬ 
dence on the subject, published his diametri¬ 
cally opposite conclusion—that it was the mare 
whose influence predominated in the foal.— 
Gen. Daumas replied, and cited a letter ad¬ 
dressed to him by Abdel Kader, in which 
it is said—“the experience of centuries has es¬ 
tablished that the essential parts of the organi¬ 
zation, such as the bones, the tendons, the nerves, 
and the veins, are always from the stallion 
and again, “ the principal qualities are from the 
DEVON BULL “ 
PURITAN,” (283) 
NUTRITION AND GROWTH OF PLANTS. 
Seed, placed in moist earth open to the air 
and sunshine, sprouts and grows. If these con¬ 
ditions are continued a sufficient time, the plant 
matures, produces seed, and then decays. Why 
and How is this done ? Why ? Because it 
was so ordered by the inscrutible wisdom of 
God, is our only answer. How ? We watch 
the process and results, we scrutinize them with 
the microscope and call chemical analysis to 
our aid, and then can give but a partial answer 
to the question. These researches and this 
scrutiny, which have long been carried on, firm 
the science of Vegetable Physiology—a science 
yet in its infancy, but of none the less import¬ 
ance to those who would understandingly cul¬ 
tivate the soil—Whose mainobiect and 
Dav y s Devon Herd Book, voi. JI, describes 
Puritan as calved 8 th Dec., 1853, and as from 
the be.,t prize importations of Col. Lewis G. 
Morris, of New York, on both sides. Sire- 
imported Erank Quartley, (205,) bred by John 
Quartley, of Molland, England. Grand Sire— 
Karl of Exeter, (38,) g. g, Sire—Baronet ( 6 ).— 
[Frank Quaitley was winner of ihe first prize as 
a, two-year old, at the N. Y. State Agiicultur.il 
Show in 1853 ; also, at the American Institute 
ia 1859 . fir.-t pr-ze as a three-year old, at the 
N. \. State Ag. Show in 1854; first prize as 
one of the Bulls which shared the laurels of the 
first prize Herd Premium of the U. S. Ag. So¬ 
ciety, at Boston, in 1855.] Dam—imported 
Viitue (469), bred by the Earl of Leicester in 
England, got by BarloD, son of the celebrated 
bull Hundred Guinea (56), out of Venus ( 459 ), 
by Derby (23),-Virgin (468) by Spencer,— 
Yioiet (467), bred by the Earl of Leicester._ 
“ Puritan,” (283,) was purchased by Hon. John 
Wentworth, of Chicago, of Col. L. G. Morris, 
Kis breeder, and can be seen at the farm of the 
Ill. Breeding Association at Summit, Cook Co. 
An article in a late Westminster Review con¬ 
tains some facts and opinions of interest to the 
farmer in general, and to the breeder especially. 
As the entire article is beyond the limits of the 
Rural, we re-write and condense it. Of course 
we must abandon, in a great measure, the lan¬ 
guage ol the writer ; the ideas, however, we 
hav e endeavored faithfully to preserve. 
lhat parents transmit to their offspring their 
own physical and mental traits, is a fundamental 
and very obvious law of Nature. Otherwise the 
utmost confusion would prevail in the animal 
creation. If like did not beget like, all classifi¬ 
cation of animals would he imuossihln Thr. 
a great exhibition. The arrangements were 
veiy well got up, and were about as near com¬ 
pletion as arrangements of the kind usually are 
at our migratory exhibitions. The arrange- 
I ments for showing stock were capital—the best 
I have yet seen — the stock being so placed as 
to give a side view. This showed the animals 
to much better advantage than the common 
method of cramming them into narrow stalls, 
headforemost. The attendance on Monday was 
very meagre, and the indications for anything 
like a good show seemed quite doubtful. Tues¬ 
day seemed to increase the number of animals 
and articles considerably, and yet the attendance 
seemed very unfavorable, but Weckiesday the 
grounds presented an animating spectacle._ 
»v. jitdutj iiibietiQ oi one. in the same family 
mo observe striking differences in stature, as¬ 
pect and disposition. Brothers under the same 
influences will differ as much from each other 
as they will from any man they may meet in 
the street. Even in the case of twins this di¬ 
versity is strongly marked. The twins Rita and 
Christina, who were so fused together as to have 
but two legs with two heads and four arms, 
were quite unlike in disposition. 
While, then, we admit the law of constancy of 
transmission, we must also admit a modifying 
law of variation. It has been attempted to ex¬ 
plain this by stating that it is the species only, 
and not the individual, that is reproduced. But 
to this theie is one fatal objection, namely, spe¬ 
cies cannot reproduce itself, for species does not 
exist. It is an abstract idea and not a concrete 
fact. It is a fiction of the understanding and 
not an object existing in Nature. Nature knows 
otdy individuals. To a group of individuals 
closely resembling each other we, for 
A second perturbing cause is atavism, or the 
influence of ancestry. It is well known that 
Jamily peculiarities ol color, deformities, tfec., 
may skip a generation and re-appear in the 
second. 
A third cause is what is called the “ potency 
of race or individual.” This influence has often 
been obvious in the history of the hum.™ 
gans.” This may be scientifically stated—" the 
male gives the animal system, the female the 
organic or vegetative.” As proof of this theo- 
1 If > Orton cites the well known instance of 
tho mule “ a modified ass—ears, mane, tail, 
skin, color, legs and hoo:s like the ass; the 
body or barrel round and full resembling the 
mare.” Whereas the produet of the stallion with 
the female ass is in the- same particulars a 
modified horse. “ The mule,” says Mr. Orton, 
xuulh lia * e a sweet taste, they contain sugar._ 
The branches and leaves of the grape vine have 
a sour taste ; they contain an acid salt. Those 
of the worm-wood have a bitter taste ; they con¬ 
tain a peculiar bitter principle. The latter also 
possess a powerful odor, which proceeds from a 
volatile oil. In the seed of our various kinds of 
grain and in the tubers of the potato plant, we 
find a substance resembling meal, starch ; in 
the seed of the rape and flax plants, a lubri¬ 
cous fluid, fat oil. From the cherry and plum 
trees there exudes a viscous matter, soluble in 
water; from fir and pine trees a similar pro¬ 
duct, but insoluble in water; we call the former 
gum, the latter resin. That which gives me¬ 
chanical support to plants, forming as it were 
their bones and blood-vessels receives the name 
of vegetable fibre, or when it has become tough, 
insoluble, ' .. 
Trotting, open to all horses, was to go off. 
The show of Cattle, as a whole, was very good, 
though not so good as I had expected to find it. 
About nine-tenths of the Short-horns exhibited 
should be fattened and sent to the shambles 
with as little delay as possible. There were 
certainly some of the most miserable specimens 
of this variety that I have ever yet seen. But 
then the show contained a few exceedingly 
meritorious animals, which perhaps^accounted 
in some degree for the miserable appearance of 
the inferior ones. Prominent among those ex¬ 
hibiting fine animals in this class, was Mr. 
Thorne, of Dutchess Co., N. Y. He had on ex¬ 
hibition his im 
ported cows “ 
licent, 
“Mistress Gwynne,” and heifer calves “Alma” 
and “Azalia” and a few other animals. They 
attracted great attention, and I have no doubt 
they will figure conspicuously in the prize list. 
Tuos. Richardson, West Farms, N. Y., showed 
an exceedingly fine imported bull — « Duke of 
Cambridge.” Dennis Kelly, Philadelphia, also 
showed a fine bull—“ Lord Barrington.” 
In Devons, the show was particularly fine 
conveni¬ 
ence, apply the term species. 
A survey of facts conclusively demonstrates 
that the individual and the peculiarities of the 
individual, and not those of an abstract type, 
are transmitted. This has been observed in 
the human race; and every breeder has seen 
i epeated instances of the fact among the lower 
animals. Every breeder knows that the colors 
of parents are inherited—that their spots are 
i epeated. Ciiambon lays it down as a principle, 
derived from experience, that by choosing pa¬ 
rents you can product; any spots 3-011 please. 
But another and an important bearing of this 
subject is found in the fact that, at times, acci¬ 
dents also become hereditary. A superb stal¬ 
lion, son of Le Glorieux, who came from the 
Pompadour stables, became blind from disease. 
AU his children became blind before they were three 
years aid. Horses marked, during successive 
or indigestible, the name of woody 
fibre. In the sap of plants we meet with a 
substance, which coagulates by boiling, like 
the white of an egg or the albumen of the blood; 
in peas or other leguminous fruits, a substance 
which is extremely like cheese ; in the seed of 
rye, wheat, oats, and other kinds of grain, a 
substance whose composition is identical with 
that of the flesh of animals ; the first is called 
vegetable albumen, the second vegetable casein, 
and the third gluten. Finally on the combus¬ 
tion of the plant, we find a residue consisting 
of an earthy or saline powder, which neither I 
1 ported bull “ Neptune,” and im 
Lalla Rookh” and “Lady Mil- 
and the yearlings “Peerless” and 
11 s predominance are vari- 
nected with “potency of 
superiority in age, vigor, 
the present state of our 
All wet land should be drained 
V 
